History Main / HyperspeedAmbush

* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}} has numerous examples of this trope:
** '' TheBattlestar ''Pegasus'' got the jump on a quartet of Cylon BaseStars when they were focused on attacking the ''Galactica''. Indeed, the first moment that even the audience knows anything of the sort is going on is when one of the Cylon ships is suddenly pummeled by [[MoreDakka a massive amount of incoming fire]] from offscreen before we see the ''Pegasus'' sail into view.

'' TheBattlestar ''Pegasus'' got the jump on a quartet of Cylon BaseStars when they were focused on attacking the ''Galactica''. Indeed, the first moment that even the audience knows anything of the sort is going on is when one of the Cylon ships is suddenly pummeled by [[MoreDakka a massive amount of incoming fire]] from offscreen before we see the ''Pegasus'' sail into view.

* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}:'' TheBattlestar Pegasus got the jump on a squadron of Cylon Base Stars when they were focused on attacking the Galactica. Indeed, the first moment that even the audience knows anything of the sort is going on is when the first of the Cylon ships is suddenly pummeled by [[MoreDakka a massive amount of incoming fire]] from offscreen before we see the Pegasus sail into view.
** Meanwhile, the fact that Cylon fighters possess FTL (in contrast to the Colonial Vipers, which have no such ability) means that the crew of Galactica have to constantly be on the ready for the small Raiders to come from anywhere at any time, only adding to their already substantial ParanoiaFuel. They keep a flight of Vipers on standby to launch within moments at all times.

*** Speaking of New Caprica, Adama jumps the Galactica past the Cylon fleet during the evacuation and into the atmosphere, launches a couple Vipers to cover the civilian's HyperspeedEscape, then jumps back into space just before hitting the ground.

** Inverted in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'': The Imperial Fleet ''loses'' the element of surprise when Admiral Ozzel has the fleet jump out of hyperspace too close to the Rebel base on Hoth, causing them to be detected immediately rather than being able to sneak up on the Rebels. Lord Vader is [[YouHaveFailedMe not very happy]] with Ozzel and Captain Piett [[YouAreInCommandNow finds himself an Admiral]] before Ozzel's body even hits the floor.

** Inverted in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'': The Imperial Fleet ''loses'' the element of surprise by jumping out of hyperspace too close to the Rebel base on Hoth, causing them to be detected immediately rather than being able to sneak up on the Rebels.

** Conversely, ''Anime/MacrossFrontier'': The Macross Quarter skewers an enemy ship with its main gun as ''it'' comes out of Fold Space [[spoiler: [[GunshipRescue narrowly rescuing]] Battle Frontier from destruction.]]

** ''Film/StarTrek2009'': We get to see the ''Enterprise'' pull one of these in the film's climax, for a GunshipRescue. Inverted earlier in the movie, where the fleet comes out of warp and [[spoiler: unexpectedly encounters the ''Narada'', and they're quickly destroyed. The ''Enterprise'' only survives because they were LateToTheTragedy.]]

* ''{{Literature/Lensman}}'': In order to get around a major difficulty in space battles - that the other side can see you coming long before you are within combat range, and has plenty of time to organise a suitable defensive formation - Boskone develops the "hyperspatial tube", which is more or less an on-demand wormhole that allows them to have ships suddenly appear at any desired location (as long as it is not too deep in a gravity well). Civilization counters this by developing a means of detecting the wormhole as soon as it begins to form, and using their superior discipline and command-and-control structures to enable them to rapidly assemble a globe of ships around the point of emergence before the enemy can complete the transit, and pot the enemy ships as they come out.

* Given that FTL in the ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' series is dependent on jumpgates, the lying-in-wait variant is to be expected. In ''X3: Terran Conflict'', there's not much that can get through a gate blockade consisting of three Terran Osaka-class destroyers operating in tandem. The games' two HardCodedHostility factions - the rogue Xenon terraformers and the buglike Kha'ak - possess jumpdrives that allow them to jump to specific points anywhere in space; Xenon need to use jump beacons, whereas the Kha'ak can jump anywhere, which they used to wreck havoc on the system of President's End by jumping a flotilla of destroyers past the system's defense forces. In the ''Xtended Terran Conflict'' GameMod, all M2+ battleships have a point-to-point jumpdrive that can be used to jump anywhere in friendly space, allowing the ponderous [[MileLongShip multi-kilometer ships]] to jump around ambushing enemy raiding parties.

* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' had both a version of and a counter to this during the Amaris Civil War. [[PlanetTerra Terra's]] AI-commanded satellite defenses would have eaten the Star League Defense Force's ships alive if they just tried to use pirate jump points to close in on Terra immediately. So before the full attack, General Kerensky commenced Operation [=BARBICAN=], in which drone-controlled ships jumped directly on top of the AI command stations, firing at close range to cripple the defenses. They were followed up by Warships performing the same maneuver, only to fall prey to a counter called the Caltrop Constellation, a group of asteroids placed in the vicinity of the stations and packed with explosives, turning them into [[SpaceMines mines]] which did not so much damage the newly arrived ships as become a hazard to counter further ships from jumping into the area.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars''[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS1E19StormOverRyloth , "Storm Over Ryloth"]]: Tuuk has four ''Munificent''-class frigates join the battle just as the Republic fleet closes to engage his flagship.

* In the season 1 finale of ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'', an unidentified ship downwarps in front of the USS ''Solvang'' and destroys her. When the ''Cerritos'' arrives in the system, said ship attacks and cripples her while the captain reveals himself to be a Pakled, a race that TookALevelInBadass from HarmlessVillain to NotSoHarmlessVillain. It then escalates after the ''Cerritos'' barely manages to destroy the first Pakled ship, only for three more to downwarp and surround her. And ''then'' the ''Titan'' pulls this with a GunshipRescue, driving away the Pakleds and saving the ''Cerritos''.

* How does the '' UNSC Infinity'' introduce itself to the Covenant fleet over Requiem in ''Halo 4: Spartan Ops'', you ask? Simple. By jumping out beside a Covenant cruiser, ''ramming through it,'' and then unleashing a small fleet of frigates upon them.

-->-- ''Machinima/ClearSkies 3''

** The Toughs' "Terapedoes", Teraport-equipped warheads, would take this UpToEleven by transporting ''inside'' an enemy's warship, before giving [[CrossestheLineTwice a friendly verbal countdown to detonation]] just so that the enemy would have time to realize what was about to happen.

** The Shivans are also very fond of this trope, especially given their mastery of hyperspace and that their ships are configured for [[WaveMotionGun pulverizing alpha strikes]]. The FanNickname for this tactic is called Shock-Jumping.

** It happens again to the second ''Normandy'', resulting in the abduction of most of the crew after it uses a virus to disable most of the ship's systems.

** It happens again to the second ''Normandy'', resulting in the abduction of most of the crew after it uses a virus to disable the ships systems.

* A Collector Cruiser does this to the ''[[CoolStarship Normandy]]'' during the intro to ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', leading to [[spoiler:Shepard's death]].
** [[spoiler:It does so again to the second ''Normandy'', succeeding in abducting most of the crew after it uses a virus to [[SittingDuck disable the]] ''Normandy''.]]

*** [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] by one of the fleet admirals of the Human Alliance, who parked his dreadnought at optimal firing range from the mass effect relay once he realized they were being invaded and took out one of the Reaper capital ships straight out of the gate. Unfortunately, since Earth was the primary target for the Reapers, [[{{ZergRush}} a lot more capital ships followed that one.]]

** The Second Battle of Basilisk features a failed one and a successful one. The Havenite ships assigned to attack the Basilisk System's Wormhole Terminus overshoot their target by millions of kilometers due to a very small mathematical error. Having lost the element of surprise, the Havenites need over an hour to reach their target. Meanwhile, Admiral White Haven has brought [[TheCavalry Eighth Fleet]] from Trevor's Star via a double Wormhole jump (Trevor's Star to Manticore, then Manticore to Basilisk) with their [[StealthinSpace stealth systems on]]. When the Havenite ships come into range, the [[ReligiousBruiser Grayson]] pod-laying superdreadnoughts of Eight Fleet introduce them to a [[MacrossMissileMassacre 19,000 missiles]].

** ''Film/RogueOne'' features two during the [[BigBadassBattleSequence Battle of Scarif]]. The first one is the Rebels launching the attack as pictured above. The second comes near the end of the battle -- the Rebel fleet [[spoiler:has successfully retrieved the Death Star plans]] and is about to retreat... [[spoiler:and then the Star Destroyer ''Devastator'' jumps in right on top of them. The first few ships actually crash into the ''Devastator'' as they're winding up to jump into lightspeed, being smashed like bugs on a windshield without scratching it.]]

* In ''Series/StargateSG1'', the Asgard are able to calculate the precise exit point of a ship in hyperspace and blow it away before it can raise shields. Unfortunately, this was a Replicator ship. While they certainly destroyed it, the pieces survived re-entry and landed on their homeworld, quickly reforming into footsoldiers.

->'''[[BigBad Ghost]]:''' Wait wait wait, ''what happened to my'' '''''jamming fields?''''' Rourke, '''''what have you done?'''''\\
'''[[TheHero Rourke]]:''' ''[laughs]'' Sascha, it's time!\\

* The Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse had "interdiction ships," which were capital ships that could generate a field preventing anything inside from jumping into hyperspace, or ''forcibly pulling'' ships that crossed their path ''out'' of hyperspace. These ships could be used for a variety of tactics.
** Used by [[MagnificentBastard Grand Admiral Thrawn]] in Creator/TimothyZahn's ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'', precisely placing interdiction ships to pull ''his own'' ships out of hyperspace at a specific point. It works so well that other commanders started using the tactic whenever possible, including Admiral Ackbar.

* Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse:
** Creator/TimothyZahn's ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'':
** Used by [[MagnificentBastard Grand Admiral Thrawn]]. Said technique involved precise placement of interdiction ships to pull his ships out of hyperspace at a specific point. It works so well that other commanders started using the tactic whenever possible, including Admiral Ackbar.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' featured a variation in the form of the "Picard Maneuver", where a ship (typically already engaged in battle) would use its warp drive to make a very short trip at very high speed[[note]]In the specific instance depicted, Warp 9, or approximately 1510 times the speed of light.[[/note]] to another part of the battlefield. If done properly (precise timing is required in order to not overshoot (or worse, collide with) the enemy, this allowed a starship commander to allow his ship to appear in two places simultaneously, because the sensor return from the ship's previous location had not yet gotten back to the enemy ship. This tactic was notably of limited use, only being effective against enemies who did not possess subspace sensors.

* ''Anime/MacrossFrontier'': The Macross Quarter skewers an enemy ship with its main gun as it comes out of Fold Space [[spoiler: [[GunshipRescue narrowly rescuing]] Battle Frontier from destruction.]]

** ''Film/RogueOne'' features two during the [[BigBadassBattleSequence Battle of Scarif]]. The first one is the Rebels launching the attack as pictured above. The second comes near the end of the battle -- the Rebel fleet [[spoiler:has successfully retrieved the Death Star plans]] and is about to retreat... [[spoiler:and then the Star Destroyer ''Devastator'' jumps in right on top of them. The first few ships actually crash into the ''Devastator'' at warp speed, being smashed like bugs on a windshield without scratching it.]]

* AncillaryJustice: In the third book, [[spoiler:''Mercy of Kalr'' uses this to fight against four larger warships, but the fourth ship catches on and turns it around by setting down mines where ''Mercy of Kalr'' was about to attack from.]]